Fifty years ago this month, two blows were delivered to the railways in Rossendale which were ultimately to lead to this being the only borough in Lancashire without a regular railway service.

The Beeching Report, as it is now known, was particularly harsh on Rossendale, closing the stretch of line which ran from Rawtenstall to Bacup, and with it train services from Bacup, Stacksteads, Newchurch and Cloughfold.

In the space of 20 years, Bacup had gone from having two railway routes to none – in the early 1950s the Facit line which had connected Bacup to Rochdale with stops at Britannia, Shawforth, Facit and Whitworth, among others.

At the other end of the Valley, the government also shut the Stubbins to Accrington line, and with it train stations in Helmshore and Haslingden – Baxenden’s station had already closed at that point.

Looking at the timetables from back there, it’s remarkable to note that as recently as the 1950s, dozens of trains a day were calling at almost every town in Rossendale.

Indeed, at the turn of the 20th century, the competition for passengers on the Rawtenstall to Bacup route was so fierce that passengers could choose between trains and steam-powered trams – and that prompted the owners of the railway to lay on even more trains between areas in Rossendale.

Look at the timetable, and it’s clear that it was possible to get into Manchester or Bury faster by train 100 years ago than it is by car or bus now.

So much for progress!

But, of course, these were different times.

Rossendale got so many railways because of its place as a beating heart of the Industrial Revolution.

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But look at the number of trains which were still using the railway lines between Stubbins and Accrington and Rawtenstall and Bacup on the year they closed in 1966 and it’s hard to understand why they were shut.

The myth of the Beeching Report is that it did away with little branch lines which were only being used by a few people a day.

The evidence – based on number of trains alone – shows that wasn’t the case in Rossendale.

What the closures did do, of course is result in the number of people using the Rawtenstall to Bury stretch of line falling as well, and, as we know, passenger services didn’t last all that longer on that stretch of line either.

Rossendale is a very different place now.

It is no longer a centre of industry, but it is a place where people want to live.

And where they want to commute.

According to government statistics, around 500 people a day commute from Blackburn with Darwen to Manchester.

Blackburn with Darwen has a train service which runs at least hourly from Manchester.

A similar number commute from Burnley to Manchester, which has also got a train service to the city.

At least 1,600 do the same from Rossendale, with a few hundred commuting the other way.

Three thousand people commute either to or from Bury to Rossendale every day.

Of course, what Blackburn and Darwen and Burnley have on their side is that they never lost their commuter services.

Rossendale did.

But it did keep its railway track, to Rawtenstall at least, thanks to the hard work of volunteers at the East Lancashire Railway.

There’s lots of talk and excitement about the new bus station in Rawtenstall, but what I’d like to see in 2017 is a concerted effort to get a rail link back to Rossendale.

The commuter numbers seem to stack up, and although it may cost millions of pounds, it would surely be an investment into the future development of Rossendale.

When we’re talking about spending billions knocking 20 minutes off a journey from Manchester to London with new high speed trains, it seems remarkable it now takes longer to get from Rossendale to Manchester or Bury at rush hour than it did half a century ago.

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A glimpse of the future emerged last week when it was announced that Crawshawbooth Community Association will take over the local library and community centre, while Whitewell Bottom Community Centre is to be transferred to the Whitewell Bottom Community Association.

Both centres were earmarked for the axe by Lancashire county council as it sought to cope with significant savings being imposed on it by government.

A lot of politics has been played out over the various building closures in Rossendale since LCC first agreed to shut them, a move which prompted criticism of local Labour councillors who approved the budget which included the closures.

But the right result has been achieved.

The centres will now remain open, and perhaps will be in an even better position than if they’d remained open by the county council.

These centres will now have people running them, and controlling the finances of them, whose sole focus is those services and buildings.

That has to be good news for local communities.

Hopefully, the same will soon be said of Bacup Library, and the library in Whitworth too.

For the county council to say it can no longer support a library in a town the size of Bacup is little short of a scandal.

Who is to blame for that scandal is a long, and ultimately pointless, debate to have, because it doesn’t change the reality.

For our local services to survive, we should expect more such moves – and it can work.

The Whitaker Museum in Rawtenstall transferred from council ownership a few years ago, and has flourished, as has the ski slope in Rawtenstall.

The hard work is, of course, far from over.

These services need, more than anything, our support, to have a viable future.

The council may have had no choice but to walk away, but community spirit should ensure the services live on for a long time.

Staghills Nursery School in Rawtenstall, Bacup Nursery School and Hillside Nursery School in Haslingden could no longer pay qualified teachers without the funding they receive, and that funding is under threat from government.

Teachers from the nurseries have been to Parliament to raise concerns and are being supported by, among others, Rossendale MP Jake

Berry.

He has signed a letter to the Early Years Minister asking for a rethink.

Mr Berry said: “Funding has been secured until 2019 but it’s vital this is extended beyond then as a nursery school education makes a significant difference to disadvantaged children in Rossendale and Darwen.”

Similar concerns are being voiced by Lancashire county council.

Not for the first time, we are seeing politicians from across the political divide unite against ridiculous proposals being proposed by Whitehall and government ministers.

For a government which, under new prime minister Theresa May, promised to help give everyone the best possible start in life, to so soon be talking about scrapping vital nursery education funding is, quite simply, breath taking.